China Romance
All About China => Chinese Culture And Festivals => Topic started by: ttwjr32 on April 01, 2010, 10:29:15 pm
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this monday is the holiday for honoring the dead here in China. people have been going to the places these last few days to pay respect and honor their family members not with them any more
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Hi Ted,
The holiday is called Qing-Ming (depending on who you talk to, in English, it's often called Tomb-Sweeping day). The tradition in South East Asia is to go to visit the graves of your ancestors and clean them up and make offerings. Lots of hell money and paper-versions of material goods are burned as offerings to your relatives.
Depending on the family, it is often a day to spend time with your family.
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But unlike some Mexico groups at least they let them stay buried! And don't dig em up to join the feast around the grave.
Willy
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Willy let me see if I can get the translation right for you.Dayo day demorta It means the day of the dead.
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Well I suppose one way or another it is nice to be remembered!
'Just going to visit Grandma! Darling - Do you know where my shovel is'?
Willy.
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Willy, I have a back-hoe you can borrow, you know how tiring digging is. We can "back fill" tomorrow....:icon_cheesygrin:
It's an extend-a-hoe, for the "really deep ones". :icon_cheesygrin:
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[attachment=1919]
Here in Kaiping, visiting the gravesites have been going on the past three weeks. April 5th is the last day to do it. Last Friday, we visited 10 gravesites on my wife's father's side of the family.We started at 9 am till 4 pm. Walking through the hills in waist high bushes isn't easy. Carrying a whole roasted pig, roasted gooses, pastries etc etc isn't easy but locals have been doing it for years. IMHO, I had a concern about the food bacteria. At the last gravesite, the local villagers [ non-family members ] gathered and waited for the food trays to be passed out. The ritual at each site is clean the area [ often using a back hoe to clear the bushes & weeds ], unpack & offer the food, stick incense sticks into the ground, shave sugar cane, offer a boiled egg, burn paper money, light firecrackers and then pack up everything for the next site.
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On Sunday, I visited the gravesite of my great great grandfather, my great grandfather [ both on a small hill in the middle of a vegetable field ], my grandmother [ on a high hill behind a pig slaughter house which was constructed after her burial ] and two unknown family gravesites. People chose their burial sites on hills based on what fortune tellers told them regarding a good luck site. Before headstones, they constructed a centered sand mounument with three smaller ones around it. A brick size "Hua Hu' would have been placed near the gravesite marking the person's name and village. Gravesites on hills are not allowed now. In Kaiping, cremation is the law now.
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I tried to visit my great grandparents gravesites on my mother's side but their gravesites was last visited 6 years ago. The bushes and weeds are neck high right now and it would be almost impossible to find a two feet high sand monument amidst the large hill.
The younger generation tend to visit only their parents, grandparents & great grandparents. To visit all earlier generations would take too much time. Unless those locations are recorded, those sand monuments [ usually unmarked ] will fade away in memory. Once my wife and I moved back to Toronto, we can visit my father's site in Toronto, his father's site in New York and my mom's parents in San Francisco. We probably won't be able to return to China annually for Qing Ming.
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The agencies will be closed on Sunday and Monday also so bros should keep this in mind if expecting emfs.
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Hi Ted,
The holiday is called Qing-Ming (depending on who you talk to )
Yes , I will celebrate Qing's and her brother Ming's special day on the fifth . I alway make fun of this Festival with my Wife .:angel:
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Arnold,
you make fun of this festival??? thats not very nice. its a day to honor those who have died
much like we honor the veterans on veterans day only with family. not nice to make fun of that.
as they would say in China " BAD ARNOLD"
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Willy, I have a back-hoe you can borrow, you know how tiring digging is. We can "back fill" tomorrow....:icon_cheesygrin:
It's an extend-a-hoe, for the "really deep ones". :icon_cheesygrin:
That's funny, I was going to say the same thing... Give Rocky a call he has the backhoe and the rock hammer.
Ted, don't worry Arnold's only looking to get spanked... again?
Chonger, actually I'm very touched that chinese people do this. To even think, knowing generations later you will be visited is amazing.
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My wife is going back to Wuhan on the 17th. As is her family custom, it is 3 years now that her father has passed and they are going to take the tombstone and set it upright. I asked her why and she didnt know. She said she was going to ask Mama. She is a nurse and of course doesnt get all of the holidays off although she is eligible as senior nurse but good heart that she is, she lets the younger ones go to some of them.
China has more National holidays than any other country I know of. Seems at least one a month sometimes two.
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Chong,
good pics thanks for sharing with us. i do think cremation is the only way now in
China. in every city. i remember my first tomb sweep 8 years ago i was at ah as
i thought it was more like a july 4 event rather than a visit to honor someone who
has passed away. and it was really wonderful to see that many generations in the
area. going back so many years just thought the same as vince when i went the first
time
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Chonger, actually I'm very touched that chinese people do this. To even think, knowing generations later you will be visited is amazing.
Vincenzo ... I'm fascinated by history. In China's villages, there's usually a "Village/Clan Book" or "Zupu" containing the history of the residents. I found the one for my Dad's village but it didn't contain any information about my ancestors. I don't know who has the "Family Book" or "Jiapu". It's a personal history book that passed from generation to generation.
However, I did find the "Hum Red Book". It's a two volume set that was published in 2009 by the Hum Association. On one page, it shows my family history from the 13th generation to my current 22nd generation. My name's in the book. On another page, I can trace back from the 13th generation back to the first Hum in Taishan in the year 1398. From there, I can trace back further to the first Hum in Guangdong in the year 901.
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Here's the ancestral shrine in my grandfather & Dad's house.
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Here's the ancestral shrine at my great grandfather's house.
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Unfortuately, each time a new house is built, the earlier generation's name is deleted from the shrine. Any reference to them and earlier names has to come from the "Jiapu".
While we're on this subject, how far back do you [ all Forum Brothers ] know about your ancestors ???
It would be fascinating to hear about your history and pay a tribute to your ancestors at the same time.
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Chong,
Interesting stuff... In the book on page 499, ...What does the box with i think the symbol for ''Boy'' underneath signify??
David....
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Chong that is really cool.I will ask my wife if she knows anything about this.
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Chong,
Interesting stuff... In the book, ...What does the box with i think the symbol for ''Boy'' underneath signify??
David....
David,
Are you referring to the empty square box underneath some of the characters ??? If so, it just means that the name is unknown. If not, I'm not sure what you're referring to. I can't read Chinese. My wife interpretes for me.
Here's the interesting stuff. My grandfather's real name is Hum Him Wing and his brother's name is Hum Lin Fook. But according to the book, they're listed as Hum Dong Gat and Hum Dong Hay. That's because every male in their generation ( 20th ) took the good luck name "Dong" after they married. Every male in the 19th generation took the good luck name pronounced "Liu". Every male in the 18th generation took the good luck name pronounced "Moon" ... etc etc etc. I was wondering why all the 1st to 20th generation had the same first character writing.
So really the Red Book only shows the Good Luck names. Their real names from birth is only found in the Jiapu. Starting from the 21st generation are the real birth names like my father's and mine's.
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Chong,
Yes that's what i was referring too, and guessed that's probably what it meant. Couldn't ask Lucy as she is sleeping, it's the early hours of the morning here ...lol!!! Like your wife, she is my interpreter...
David....
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Maxx ... It would be interesting about your wife's history.
Sad to say that only male names were recorded. Only the recent generations have included 'daughter's names'. On the house ancestor's shrines, only the wife's surname was written beside her husband's.
Chinese families believed that daughters belonged to the husband's family after they marry; thus, any history information about them was not recorded.
For example, if my Mom wanted to find out ancestral information about her family ( Lee ), she would have a hard time because she's considered as a 'Hum'. Her brother, on the other hand, would have easy access to any "Lee" book/information.
When I went to search for my Mom's grandparent's gravesite, villagers asked me ... "Why ?" ... It's because I'm a 'Hum', not a 'Lee'
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back to topic
Sophie reminded me about Qing-Ming this Monday, :s and then said just before she signed off, be a few days...
Now I know that this can go on for a while, there will be no need to worry about why not answering, or not getting in touch...cheers guys:icon_biggrin:
Told her I would say a special prayer for her father and her for her grief...:heart:
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Chong i showed my wife what you posted (the pics) and she said her father
has that also which i will want to see when we visit there this summer. they
live in baotao and my wife doesnt like to go there during the winter but i will
find that very interesting
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Chong,
You asked how far back we can go with our ancesters. Well about 5 years ago, my sister and i started tracing back both my mothers and fathers family. With a few gaps here and there, we managed to get back on my mothers side to the 11th century and on my fathers side to the 14th century.
Seems my mothers family originated (as far as we know to date) from France, and later emigrated to southern Scotland. Later moving down and setting up home in York some 70 years later. We had a lot of trouble getting further back on my fathers side, they seemed to of just suddenly appeared in Colechester. Which means that they came from mainland Europe, or it's a case of another minor name change. We have had a lot of those, and they can be a real bugger to get past.... lol!!
David....
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David,
You seem to be following the family trend ... did you change your surname to "50" ... hahahahaha.
Thanks for your story. You must be proud ... and also curious to find out more. What reason did you want to trace your family's history 5 years ago ?
Today, I visited my great grandfather's gravesite on my mother's side. I also discovered the names of my second great grandparents and my third great grandparents. This came about by meeting [for the first time] my Mom's first cousins while walking Qing Ming.
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Chong,
You wouldn't believe how many derivatives of ''King'' we have come across..... At the moment our family name has gone back to ''Kingsman'' but have also had Kingsmen, Kine, Kines, Kings, etc etc. It only takes a recorder from the past to miss spell, or make a mistake and your in for some multiple searches around the name your looking for.
We have only come across one name change on my mothers side to date, from Titchiner to Titchner
Oh, and by the way it's 5o not 50 ...hahaha!!
David
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I hear what you're saying.
My ancestors go by either Hum/Hom/Tam/Tom/Tan. It was common for immigrants coming to Canada in the 1940's-1950's to buy adopted surnames from settled families to ease the country's entry.
My Mom has various IDs with either Hum/Tam/Tom.
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It wasn't a case of mis-spelling the names...
The names are taken from whereabouts the people reside or their occupations.
For example, 'Blacksmith's' would have the the name Smith, Smyth, Black, Blackie, etc etc
Another example, would be risidinding at the bottom of a hill....Hill, Hilly, Hillie Bray etc etc
About 10 - 15 years ago, I done my family tree, because i was interested in doing something different...it is a costly thing to do, if sone properly...